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Live concert experience from your smartphone

Do you ever feel unsatisfied when listening to music on headphones? That’s because when listening to music live, the sound vibrations make you experience it through your whole body. The Hapbeat is the world’s first wearable device that lets you experience music like you would at a club or live concert by sending the sound vibrations directly through your body. With the Hapbeat, you can get the power and immersion of live music on your smartphone. This project strives to make Hapbeat a reality.

What is Hapbeat?

Connect Hapbeat to your smartphone through Bluetooth and plug in your headphones to experience music, movies and games like you never have before. It feels like everything is happening right in front of you! Hapbeat wraps around your body transmitting vibrations from your front to your back, immersing you in sound you can feel from the inside. Hapbeat delivers powerful as well as delicate vibrations for an audio expressiveness that simply isn’t possible on conventional smart phones and game consoles.

Playing Jazz music by Hapbeat

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Playing movie (explosion scene) by Hapbeat

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How to use Hapbeat

1. Put it on!

2. Wrap the string around 3.Connect Hapbeat to your smartphone (Via Bluetooth or by wire)4. Connect earphones 5. Play music on your smart device

Utilization of iPhone vibrator and speaker in conjunction with the linear-vibrator device (iPhone uses paper instead of weights)

●Smaller device would be unable to produce vibrations for large, low-frequency sounds ○Cause: movement of weights (strength of vibrations) would be limited

●Larger device would be unable to produce delicate vibrations ○Cause: responsiveness of device would be limited due to its large size, and because the entire device is designed to vibrate

●Device size is proportional to the range of the body it can send vibrations through (a small device would span a very limited area) ○Cause: vibrations are only felt in areas where the device is placed, a large device is needed to cover a wide range

Experiment Results

・Comparison between Hapbeat & loud speaker

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An experiment using a container of water was used to show how much vibrations were being emitted to the wearer of Hapbeat compared to a regular speaker. Please see the video for the results.

Left: Hapbeat's strings sending the vibrations to a container of water
Right: The sound from a loud speaker affecting a container of water (110dB)

*110dB is about hearing a car horn two meters in front of it. A normal karaoke room is about 90dB.

An Experiment Between Audio Signal Waves of Music and Hapbeat's Vibration Waves

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Hapbeat's sound output waves (Screen: Top) and the vibration waves from its strings (Screen: Bottom) were compared. Hapbeat producing the vibrations as it synchronizes to the bass of the music could be seen.

Sine Wave (10-1000Hz) Reproduction Experiment

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An experiment to see how much frequency Hapbeat is able to reproduce was tested by using Sine waves. The frequency level is 10-1000Hz.
Looking at the waveforms, you could see that Hapbeat is accurately reproducing the audio signal.

In the experiment, the Hapbeat and Haptuator were compared in terms of how well they transmit vibration energy. The extent of vibration is reflected by the size of the square in each diagram.

Hapbeat conveys vibration uniformly in comparison to Haptuator, which only vibrates the immediate vicinity.

At 150 Hz both Hapbeat and Haptuator do well to convey vibration. However, at 30 Hz, Hapbeat continues to transmit vibration well while Haptuator transmits almost no vibration.

Rewards

The Team

Hapbeat LLC is a start-up company formed by Tokyo Institute of Technology's Hasegawa Shoichi Laboratory. Yamazaki first got the idea for Hapbeat as a graduate student when he was selecting his research topic, interested in creating a device that would recreate the feeling of being at a concert. He sought out the advice of Associate Professor Hasegawa, and the concept of Hapbeat was formed. He then presented his prototype at a VR Institute. During his participation in a startup firm event, he met Oda, a student from the same school and together they formed a team. Current staff include Yamazaki, Associate Professor Hasegawa, and Oda. Yamazaki works as the overall manager and designer of the device. Associate Professor Hasegawa specializes in circuit operations and technical consulting, while Oda is in charge of marketing.

Partners

Product, web and video design was done under the supervision of Tokyo Metropolitan University Associate Professor Tetsuaki Baba and assisted by TMU graduates and research students.We have also been selected by the DMM.make AKIBA Open Challenge project and have been working with the support of DMM.com Co., Ltd., and Autodesk Inc.

Hapbeat was not originally developed as a commercial product it was born out of an university research project. The comfort of enjoying music with your whole body is already a great part of our lives. We wanted to share this joy with as many people as possible by making the experience more accessible. However, product development comes with research expenses. Here on Kickstarter we hope to find and gather people that love new experiences and technology, and music that will help us make this project come true.

Risks and challenges

Because the motor currently used for the prototype and the motor to be incorporated in the actual product differ slightly, the size of the device may change by about several millimeters.

While we are working on reducing battery consumption, the battery drive time is limited, so we cannot guarantee long play at maximum output. For longer play times at high output, a separate battery may be needed.

Internal mechanical parts such as the spring cannot be guaranteed. For fragile parts, replacements will be made available separately.

Should there be delays in fulfillment for whatever reason, we will promptly keep you informed of the situation.

As we may not be able to ship to certain areas, we may ask backers to provide an alternate shipping address. Please contact us if there is a possibility that shipping may be restricted in your region. It may not be possible to ship to certain areas.

Except for error or gross negligence on our part, refunds will not be offered two weeks after the end of the project funding.